U.S. patent application number 09/927305 was filed with the patent office on 2003-02-13 for automatic commercial skipping service.
This patent application is currently assigned to KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V.. Invention is credited to Sagar, Richard Bryan.
Application Number | 20030031455 09/927305 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 25454545 |
Filed Date | 2003-02-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20030031455 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Sagar, Richard Bryan |
February 13, 2003 |
Automatic commercial skipping service
Abstract
A business model is provided for the entertainment industry. In
this model a service provider delivers a content information to a
device of a subscriber. Upon a first fee, the user is provided with
the content information that comprises a commercial information.
The device of the user is configured to enable the user to manually
skip the commercial information when playing out the buffered
content information. In this business model, a second tier of
service level is offered. In return to an additional fee, the user
is offered to have his device enabled to automatically skip the
commercial information.
Inventors: |
Sagar, Richard Bryan; (Santa
Clara, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Corporate Patent Counsel
Philips Electronics North America Corporation
580 White Plains Road
Tarrytown
NY
10591
US
|
Assignee: |
KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS
N.V.
|
Family ID: |
25454545 |
Appl. No.: |
09/927305 |
Filed: |
August 10, 2001 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
386/234 ;
348/E7.054; 386/251; 386/E5.001; 386/E5.043; 705/14.46; 725/32 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/25435 20130101;
H04N 21/458 20130101; H04N 21/4334 20130101; H04N 5/782 20130101;
H04N 21/8455 20130101; H04N 7/16 20130101; G06Q 30/0247 20130101;
H04N 21/4147 20130101; H04N 21/8453 20130101; H04N 21/4345
20130101; H04N 21/812 20130101; H04N 21/6334 20130101; H04N 21/84
20130101; H04N 21/4325 20130101; H04N 5/76 20130101; H04N 21/47214
20130101; H04N 21/4331 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
386/35 ; 725/32;
705/14 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60; H04N
007/025; H04N 007/10; H04N 009/79 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method of providing a service to a user, the method
comprising: upon payment of a first fee by the user, transmitting a
content information comprising a commercial information to a device
of the user, the device being configured to enable to skip any
portion of the content information; and, upon payment of an
additional fee by the user, enabling the device of the user to
automatically skip the commercial information when playing out the
content information.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: enabling the device
to remove the commercial information when recording the content
information.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting a signal
representative of a temporal occurrence of the commercial
information; and, enabling the device to interrupt a recording of
the content information during the commercial information based on
the signal.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting a signal
for identifying the commercial information in the information
content; and, enabling the device to omit the commercial
information from a recording of the content information based on
the signal.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the device is enabled to
automatically jump over the commercial information when playing out
a recorded version of the content information.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: enabling the user to
inactivate the automatic skipping of the commercial
information.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: charging the
additional fee for each automatic skipping of the commercial
information.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: broadcasting the
content information.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: streaming the content
information to the device of the user.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the content information is
representative of a portion of television program.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the content information is
representative of a portion of a radio program.
12. A service provided to a user, the service comprising: upon
payment of a fee by the user, transmitting a content information
comprising a commercial information to a device of the user, the
device being configured to enable to skip any portion of the
content information; and, upon payment of an additional fee by the
user, enabling the device of the user to automatically skip the
commercial information when playing out the content
information.
13. A method of enabling to provide a service to a user, the
service comprising: (i) upon payment of a fee by the user,
transmitting a content information comprising a commercial
information to a device of the user, the device being configured to
enable to skip any portion of the content information; (ii) upon
payment of an additional fee by the user, enabling the device of
the user to automatically skip the commercial information when
playing out the content information. wherein the method comprising
enabling one of steps (i) and (ii).
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The invention relates to information distribution.
[0002] The invention is relevant, however non exclusively, to
entertainment services such as personal radio services or personal
television services.
BACKGROUND ART
[0003] Video recorders enable skipping of commercials by fast
forwarding through them when watching a previously recorded
program. With new hard-disk drive based recorders it is possible to
skip commercials in "live" television. Technically, this requires
that the program that the individual is watching, is buffered via a
video cache on the hard-disk drive and the program played-out is
actually slightly time-shifted. Users have been given means to
customize their TV experience and as a consequence, the service
provider partially lost control over the viewer's experience. The
user is now able to decide when and what to watch or skip.
[0004] Several image processing techniques exist to detect and
automatically skip commercials in multimedia content when recording
content.
[0005] International patent application WO 01/35409 proposes one
possible way of detecting commercials in a television program. This
document proposes a method and apparatus for controlling an MPEG
video media recording device to automatically identify and
selectively skip segments of a video signal, such as commercial
advertisements, during a recording session. During an MPEG video
data recording session the system continuously monitors the video
data being recorded to detect a scene change occurring over one or
more image fields. In response to a detected scene change, the
system stores in a file a time and record location on the media
corresponding to the occurrence of the scene change. Depending upon
the time interval between several of the detected scene changes,
the system identifies a corresponding video segment as either a
commercial advertisement or a chapter boundary. By identifying the
segments in this way, the playback presentation can then be
selectively controlled.
[0006] These emerging and available technologies become a threat to
the entertainment industry and especially to the television
industry. The wide acceptance of personal television may mean a
drop in the advertising revenues of most TV broadcasters since
commercial advertisements may not have the same impact on the
audience as they used to have in the past. An approach of the
entertainment industry towards this threat was to find solutions to
prevent subscribers from skipping commercial advertisements when
watching time-shifted TV programs.
[0007] International application WO 99/37045 proposes a digital
radio broadcast system providing various interactive features
including skip backward and skip forward. This document proposes
tiers of service levels for non-paying and paying subscribers. A
scheme is given that allows access control. A paying subscriber can
listen to commercial-free audio, while the non-paying consumer
hears a combination of music and advertisements. The paying user is
provided with access points to bypass the commercials. As to the
non-paying user, the fast forward and skip features of his device
are disabled so that he cannot bypass the commercials.
SUMMARY
[0008] An object of the invention is to propose an advantageous
business model that can be mapped onto the various existing
information distribution schemes.
[0009] It is another object of the invention to offer a business
model responsive to users' behaviors that drastically changed with
the arrival of new multimedia technologies and products.
[0010] To this end, a business method of the invention relates to a
service provided to a user. The business method comprises
transmitting a content information to a device of the user upon
payment of a fee by the user. The content information comprises a
commercial information. The device of the user is configured to
enable skipping of any portion of the content information. Upon
payment of an additional fee, the device of the user is enabled to
automatically skip the commercial information when the content
information is played out.
[0011] This business model gives a subscriber the possibility of
paying an additional fee in order to have advertisements
automatically removed from programs. In this model, the
advertisement skipping feature becomes transparent to the user in
the sense that the user is not manually skipping the advertisements
any longer. In the invention, a device of a subscriber of the basic
level of service permits manual skipping of the commercial
advertisements, whereas a device of a subscriber of the enhanced
service of the invention is configured to automatically skip
commercial advertisements when the content information is played
out. The content information may be temporally shifted to permit
the device to process the content information and remove the
commercial information before recording. A business method of the
invention enhances existing information distribution models and
moves in the direction of what the user wants while preserving a
revenue stream generated through advertising.
[0012] In a further embodiment of the invention, the method also
comprises enabling the device to record the content information
without the commercial information.
[0013] In this embodiment, only part of the received content
information is recorded on a storage arrangement of the device.
Thus, no other processing of the content information is necessary
in real-time while playing out the recorded content information.
The recorded content information can be played as such and, as a
result, the user viewing experience can be optimized.
[0014] The commercial information may represent a temporal segment
in a video program and a signal may be transmitted to indicate the
temporal occurrence of the commercial segment. The signal may, for
example, indicate the beginning and the end of the commercial
segment in the content information. The commercial information may
also be a set of data inserted in the content information such as a
video object inserted in a picture field or in a sequence of
successive MPEG frames.
[0015] In a further embodiment of the invention, the automatic
skipping of the commercial information may be disabled by the
user.
[0016] In this embodiment, the skipping of the advertisements is
left at the discretion of the user to maximize his/her control over
the program being played.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] The invention is explained in further details, by way of
examples, and with reference to the accompanying drawings
wherein:
[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates a content distribution scheme of the
invention;
[0019] FIG. 2 illustrates another content distribution scheme of
the invention;
[0020] FIG. 3 to FIG. 5 are block diagrams of a device used in a
method of the invention;
[0021] Elements within the drawing having similar or corresponding
features are identified by like reference numerals.
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0022] FIG. 1 illustrates a first embodiment of a business model of
the invention. In this model a service provider 102 offers a
personal television service. Such a service provider may be for
example TIVO Inc., a leader and precursor in personal television
services or MICROSOFT Corporation. A business model of the
invention also comprises television programs broadcasting. The
broadcasting may be analog or digital. To this end, a content
broadcaster 100 transmits a content information 123 to subscribers
104, 106, 108. The content information 123 is transmitted over
terrestrial cables, satellites, antennas or any other transmission
means. The content information 123 is a set of data representing
part of a television program, a full program or a sequence of
programs and the content information 123 comprises commercial
information 456, not represented in FIG. 1. The content information
123 and the commercial information 456 are hereafter referred to as
content 123 and the commercial 456. Content 123 and the commercial
456 refer to both a piece of content to be encoded and the encoded
data representing the piece of content. The commercial 456 may
represent an advertisement segment temporarily interrupting content
123, e.g. the advertisement is a standard commercial break. The
commercial 456 may also represent an advertisement object inserted
in content 123. For example, content 123 is an MPEG-4 digitally
encoded television program and the commercial 456 is an MPEG-4
object inserted in the field of one or more frames thereby, e.g.
replacing an existing object in several successive displayed
frames. For example, a logo advertising a sponsor may be inserted
in the central round of a soccer field during game interruption
periods. For example, the commercial 456 may be used in
programmable product replacement. Alternatively, the advertising
object is added in transparence to a portion of a displayed frame
without, in this case, specifically replacing an object in the
frame.
[0023] The subscribers 104-108 may subscribe to at least two tiers
of service levels. A first tier corresponds to a basic service. In
this embodiment, the users 104 and 108 have subscribed to this
first type of service upon payment of a first subscription fee. The
fee may be paid daily, weekly, monthly, on a lifetime basis or upon
connection, e.g. phone line connection fee. As part of the basic
service, the subscribers 104 and 108 are provided with a receiving
device 124 and 128, respectively. The receiving devices 124 and
128, e.g. set top box, may be given for free, leased or retailed.
The devices 124 and 128 are, for example, a TIVO set-top box or a
MICROSOFT's ULTIMATE TV set-top box powering a digital video
recorder and giving the users 104 and 108 a complete control over
"live" television. In this embodiment, the receiving devices 124
and 128 respectively comprise a storage arrangement, e.g. a buffer,
and are configured to enable fast forward and skip features when
playing time-shifted content. The receiving devices 124 and 128 are
configured to receive and play out content 123 received from the
broadcaster 100.
[0024] The devices 124 and 128 also permit the users 104 and 108 to
manually skip commercials when watching a buffered or memorized
television program. The remote control provided with this type of
device may comprise a skip button that allows skipping 30 seconds
of a program being played from a memory unit. By pressing several
time the skip button, the users 104 and 108 can jump over
commercial breaks when watching a program stored in the storage
arrangement of their respective devices 124 and 128. For example,
the user 104 stores content 123 in the storage arrangement of the
device 124. Later on, when playing out content 123, the user 104
manually controls the device 124 to jump over the commercial
456.
[0025] The service provider 102 also offers a second tier of
service being an enhancement of the basic service. In this
embodiment, the user 106 has subscribed to this enhanced service.
This enhanced service of the invention permits to ameliorate the
viewer's experience.
[0026] In this service, the subscriber 106 is also provided with a
receiving device 126. The device 126 may be of the same type as the
one provided to subscribers 104 and 108 of the basic service. The
device 126 may also be of a different type with additional or
distinct features. The receiving device 126 is equipped with a
storage arrangement for temporarily storing television programs.
The device 126 enables the skip and fast forward features. These
features may be used to manually skip commercial advertisements or
any other portion of a program temporarily stored in the storage
arrangement.
[0027] The enhanced service comprises enabling the device 126 to
automatically skip the commercial 456 detected in content 123. This
may be done in different ways. A first possible way is to remove
the commercial 456 before storing content 123 in the storage
arrangement of the device 126. Content 123 can then be played out
from the storage arrangement without the commercial 456. A second
possible way is to store content 123 as it is received from the
broadcaster 100, i.e. together with the commercial 456. The device
126 comprises a control unit that detects the commercial 456 from
content 123 and controls the device 126 to jump over the commercial
456 when content 123 is played out from the storage arrangement.
These various ways of automatically skipping the commercial 456 are
explained in details hereinafter.
[0028] The embodiment of FIG. 1 illustrates a possible way of
detecting the commercial 456 from content 123. The commercial 456
is a temporal segment inserted in content 123. The broadcaster 100
informs the service provider 102 of the location and/or length of
the commercial 456 in content 123. For example, the broadcaster 100
transmits a signal 110 to the service provider 102 indicating the
beginning and the end of the commercial 456. Content 123 may be
indexed and the signal 110 gives the reference indicating where the
commercial 456 is located in content 123.
[0029] From the signal 110, the service provider 102 is able to
indicate to the device 126 the position of the commercial 456 in
content 123. For example, the service provider 102 transmits a
signal 112 to the device 126, the signal 112 being representative
of an "enhanced" television guide. An electronic program guide
(EPG) is typically an onscreen television guide that displays to
the user channel and program information. A text-based EPG is
similar to a printed television guide. A multimedia EPG allows the
user to choose and record a program once, daily, or weekly at the
touch of a button on the remote, sort through movies by theme,
review top national and world news stories, and access
comprehensive coverage of news, weather, sports, and entertainment
stories. A typical multimedia EPG includes channel grids that
contain present and future television programs and, in some
instances, along with a video window that displays a current
broadcast from a selected channel and a brief description of the
program. In this embodiment, the signal 112 includes information
necessary to enable the device 126 to locate the commercial 456 in
content 123. The signal 112 includes a set of data associated with
content 123 giving for example the channel, broadcasting content
123 or the name of the broadcaster 100, the time scheduled for
broadcasting, the duration of content 123 and a brief summary. The
signal 112 is such that this set of data also indicates the
location of the commercial 456 in content 123. In this embodiment,
the signal 112 represents an interactive program guide. Indeed, the
user 106 can watch content 123 by selecting an icon associated with
content 123 and displayed on an interactive program schedule grid.
The information indicating the position and/or length of the
commercial 456 may not be displayed to the user 106. The user 106
may not be able to read this information, which can be encrypted
with a set of public/private keys as will be shown hereinafter.
Thus, when the user 106 selects content 123, the device 126 can
locate the commercial 456 in the received content 123 from the set
of data associated with content 123. The device 126, configured for
automatic advertisement skipping, is now able to skip the
commercial 456 when playing content 123.
[0030] The enhanced service is available upon payment of an
additional fee on top of the first fee paid for the basic service.
The additional fee may be paid with the basic fee daily, weekly,
monthly or on a lifetime basis. The additional fee may be a one
time payment for having the advertisements automatically removed
for a given period. In another business model of the invention, the
additional fee is charged per commercial-free item stored in the
storage arrangement of the device 126. The fee can also be charged
per commercial-free viewing of a recorded program. The fee may also
be based on the time of broadcast. Indeed skipping of commercials
during a famous TV show played at a peak audience time may be
charged higher than skipping commercials during a TV program played
late at night. Other business models not mentioned here and based
upon charging the subscriber for the additional service of
automatically removing or jumping over advertisements when playing
out a piece of content are also in the scope of the invention.
[0031] In an embodiment of the invention, the additional revenue
incoming from subscribers of the enhanced service is redistributed
to the content broadcaster 100 so that the broadcaster 100 can
compensate the unavoidable drop in direct advertising revenue.
However in this embodiment, the revenue stream does not flow
directly from the user 106 to the content broadcaster 100. The
service provider 102 collects the subscription fee paid by the user
106 and redistributes the collected revenue to the various
broadcasters, e.g. the broadcaster 100. It is thus within the scope
of the invention to consider that the broadcaster 100 is also
providing a service to the user 106 according to a method of the
invention. Indeed the broadcaster 100 broadcasts the content
information 123, which is received by the user 106. Upon payment of
the additional fee by the user 106, the broadcaster 100 enables the
device 126 of the user 106 to automatically play advertisement-free
content, e.g. by providing the signal 110 indicating the position
of the commercial 456 in content 123. Thus, both the provider 102
and the broadcaster 100 provide a service according to a method of
the invention. In another embodiment, the service provider 102 and
the broadcaster 100 share the revenue resulting from the basic and
the enhanced services.
[0032] It should be appreciated to those skilled in the art that
information broadcast is not the only transmission technology being
encompassed in the invention and any other transmission technology
may be used, e.g. streaming or point-to-point transmission.
[0033] FIG. 2 is another block diagram illustrating another
distribution scheme of the invention. The broadcaster 100 transmits
content information 789. The content information 789 is a set of
data representing a program or part of it, and is broadcast to the
devices 124, 126 and 128. Content 789 does not comprise the
commercial 456. The commercial 456 is received from an
advertisement database 200. For example, the broadcasting of
content 789 may be national whereas the transmission of the
commercial 206 may be done locally in order to target a local
audience with local advertisements. The commercial 456 can be
inserted in content 789 locally at the devices 124-128. In another
embodiment, the commercial 456 and content 123 are combined in an
intermediary broadcast station near the devices 124-128. The
commercial 456 can be inserted in content 789 when content 789 is
played out live or when content 789 is locally recorded in the
storage arrangement of the devices 124-128. The broadcaster 100 may
communicate with the database 200 via link 202 to synchronize the
broadcasting of content 789 and the broadcasting of the commercial
456.
[0034] For example, the users 104 and 108 have subscribed to the
basic service and the user 106 has subscribed to the enhanced
service. As mentioned previously, the device 126 is enabled to
automatically skip the commercial 456 when playing out content 789.
To this end, the broadcaster 100 transmits a signal 204 to the
devices 124, 126 and 128. The signal 204 permits configuring the
device 126 to automatically skip the commercial 456 when playing
out content 789. The signal 204 may be a set of encrypted data that
can only be read by the device 126. For example, the device 126
comprises a software application run by a controller, which is
remotely actionable. In response to the signal 204, the controller
runs the software application to configure the device 126 so that
advertisement-free content can be played. The software application
configures the device 126 to ignore the insertion of the commercial
456 in content 789 and as a result the device 126 plays content 789
as such.
[0035] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the device 126. The device 126
comprises a television guide module 304, a decrypting unit 302 and
an identification unit 306. The device 126 needs to update on a
regular basis the internally stored television guide. This is for
example done weekly. To this end, the device 126 dials up, e.g. via
a telephone line, to the service provider 102. When dialing up, the
ID unit 306 transmits identification data 310 to the service
provider 102. From data 310, the service provider 102 identifies
the user 106 as a subscriber of the enhanced service. The provider
102 transmits the signal 112 to the device 126. The signal 112
represents the new television guide 308 and the signal 112 also
comprises encrypted timestamps 316 indicating the position of the
commercial 456 in content 123. The provider 102 can encrypt the
timestamps 316 using the RSA public encryption technology. Public
key encryption involves a pair of keys: a public key and a private
key. The public key is known and the private key is kept secret.
Data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the
private key. A private key has been stored in the ID unit 306. From
the signal 310, the provider 102 can identify the public key to be
used to encrypt data that the device 126 will be able to decrypt.
The public key may be stored in the ID unit 306 or information
identifying the public key may be stored in the unit 306. The
provider 102 encrypts the timestamps 316 using this public key. The
signal 112 is received by the module 304.
[0036] The module 304 renders the program guide 308 from the signal
112. The module 304 is configured to render a first field 310 of
the guide 308 indicating the channel playing content 123 and
indicating content 123 itself. The module 304 also renders a second
field 312 and a third field 314 indicating respective beginning and
end of broadcast of content 123. The fourth field comprising the
timestamps 316 is rendered by the decrypting unit 302. The unit 302
decrypts the timestamps 316 using the private key provided by the
ID unit 306. The timestamps 316 indicate the position and length of
the commercial 456 in content 123. From the decrypted timestamps,
the device 126 is able to skip the commercial 456 from content
123.
[0037] FIG. 4 is another example block diagram of the device 126.
In this example, the device 126 removes the commercial 456 from
content 123 before recording content 123 in a video storage unit
414.
[0038] A tuner 402 receives broadcast content 123 and transmits
content 123 to a video encoder 404 and a XDS decoder 410. The XDS
decoder 410 is capable of extracting, well-known in the art, XDS
(Extended Data Services) data from content 123. The XDS data is
transmitted in content 123 along with close caption data and text
data. The XDS data comprises a program identification number that
permits to identify the start time of content 123 and time and date
relative to the coordinate universal time. The XDS data indicates
the current time through a program. Thus, from the XDS data of
content 123 the decoder 410 can indicate in real time the time
elapsed in the playing or receiving of content 123. The decoder 410
provides a time reference for content 123. In this embodiment, the
decoder 410 stores the elapsed time information in the video
storage unit 414.
[0039] A video encoder 404 receives content 123 from the tuner 402.
The encoder 404 encodes received content 123 in a format adapted
for storage in the unit 414, e.g. MPEG-2. The encoder 404 provides
encoded content 123 to a buffer 406 and a central processing unit
408 controls the transfer of encoded content 123 from the buffer
406 to the storage unit 414.
[0040] A controller 412 controls the commercial-free recording of
content 123 in the storage unit 414. The controller 412 receives
the elapsed time information associated with content 123 from the
decoder 410. The decoder 410 may provide the elapsed time
information to the controller 412 in real time simultaneously as
the XDS data is extracted from received content 123. The controller
412 compares the elapsed time information and the timestamps 316
indicating the temporal occurrence of the commercial 456 in content
123. Based on the comparison, the controller 412 monitors the PCU
to omit the recording of commercial 456 in the storage unit 414.
Content 123 is stored in the unit 414 free of advertisement. The
device 126 is then able to play commercial-free content 123.
[0041] Another example block diagram of the device 126 is given in
FIG. 5. In this embodiment, content 123 is stored in the storage
unit 414 with the commercial 456. The tuner 402 receives broadcast
content 123 and transmits content 123 to the video encoder 404. The
encoder 404 encodes content 123, e.g. in MPEG-2 format and
transmits encoded content 123 to the buffer 406. The CPU 408
controls the transfer of content 123 from the buffer 406 to the
unit 414. The decoder 410 extracts the XDS data from content 123
and deduces the elapsed time in the playing of content 123. The
decoder 410 transmits the deduced elapsed time to the PCU 408 so
that the elapsed time information may be multiplexed with encoded
content 123 before storage in the unit 414. The controller 412 also
provides the timestamps 316 to the storage unit 414.
[0042] The device 126 comprises a playback control unit 416 for
controlling the play-out of content 123 stored in the unit 414. The
unit 416 compares the elapsed time information and the timestamps
316, both stored in the unit 414, in order to detect the commercial
456 in content 123. The unit 416 controls the CPU 408 to jump over
the commercial 456 when playing out content 123. Thus,
commercial-free content 123 is transmitted to a video decoder 418,
the decoder 418 playing out content 123 to the user 106.
[0043] The word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other
elements or steps than those listed in a claim.
* * * * *